Flashlights

Explosion proof!

I have this vague recollection of how I got my first "grown up" flashlight.

I was 8 or 9 and it was a gift -- Christmas? Birthday? I don't remember. I still have it. It's a black 2D Maglite. Over the last ~25 years I've had the flashlight, it has picked-up numerous nicks, scratches, at least one set of batteries leaked inside the tube, and the rubberized cover for the on/off button recently came off and has been lost. Still, it works and that's the important thing.

Even before that I had this weird attachment to flashlights.

Christy Clark and Me

The audio in the YouTube clip above came from an appearance on the Christy Clarke Show (on CKNW AM980 in Vancouver, BC) when I was guest just before Christmas 2007. I was there as a video game expert to talk about games, what was hot/not, what kids should and shouldn’t be playing, etc. Unfortunately for me – and I’ve done nothing to rectify this particular issue – I have zero media training so it’s kind of difficult to listen to five years after the fact.

Christy’s first question, “So, what are the hot games this Christmas?”

What do I do? I completely sidestep the question and start monologuing about ESRB ratings.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare Screenshots

Just a handful of hi-res screenshots from the PC version of Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Playing through this version is much more enjoyable than the 360 version for a couple of reasons. The obvious graphical upgrade, but also aiming with the mouse! Review should be posted on ae-infinite.com this week. *WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead.*

Alan Wake's American Hair-Trigger Aiming

Alan Wake's American Nightmare was recently released for PC and playing through it again... egad, this game nails ambience and setting like nobody's business. And yes, it looks better than the 360 version.

It also has hair-trigger controls, especially in comparison to the 360 gamepad.

Even turning the mouse sensitivity all the way down, there's always the danger of overshooting the mark.

Imagine sneezing, opening your eyes, and finding that you've spun yourself 180-degrees and are looking at the floor. That's what it feels like. It feels a little strange to have to use such a steady hand. I didn't find this with Saints Row: The Third -- I made a minor adjustment and I was good. No further changes required.

This over-sensitivty comes in handy during fights with swarming enemies because aiming is so quick and accurate, but I so far I've felt like I'm walking a tightrope being quick and not knowing which direction I'm facing.

The full review should be posted on www.ae-infinite.com next week.

Reviews and Sundry

I've posted my positive review of Alan Wake's American Nightmare and I have to admit that I'm still thinking about the game. That tends to be a hallmark of a good game for me. Do I think about it when I'm not playing it? Do I wish I was playing it rather than writing about it? That's what a good (maybe even great) game is to me.

I'm running into this with SSX at the moment. The review is mostly written but I'd rather be playing it. I started writing the review last night and I couldn't remember the name of one of the modes so I jumped into the game to verify.

It was a verification process that took two solid hours because, hey, you can never be too sure about something.

Also, the scene at this link is from "Watchmen" and was filmed mere blocks from my house. There's a ton of CG involved, but that cemetery actually exists.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare: Early Impressions

So, I'm about halfway through the story of Alan Wake's American Nightmare -- from what I can tell -- and I'm really having fun with it.

It does exactly what I wanted it to do. Answer some questions, present new ones, fill in some blanks, and pay homage to the likes of that one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the Enterprise-D is stuck in a time loop, X-Files, LOST, among many other sources. And even though it does all that, it still doesn't actually answer very much or at least doesn't spoon feed the players the answers to what's actually happening. Instead it allows the player to draw some of their own conclusions; write their own fiction as to why things are happening the way they are. Has Alan has actually escaped the cabin under the lake back to the real world years after the events of the first game and he's just gone batshit insane? Are the TVs and radios conduits to the real world? Is his nemesis, Mr. Scratch, living in Alan's head or is Alan living in Mr. Scratch's head? Am I just over-thinking the whole thing? Probably. But that's part of the appeal of Alan Wake, at least for me.

Alan Wake: Played It, Finished It, Looking Forward to Playing it Again

Bright Falls has never looked so good.

As a game, Alan Wake really got under my skin. The combat wasn't always spot-on as Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (by Alan Wake developer, Remedy) but the setting, the psychological X-Files, Twin Peaks aspects sunk its hooks into me in a big way. If I wasn't playing it, I wanted to the be playing it. I burned through the two DLC "episodes" -- "Previously on Alan Wake" still makes me feel good -- and started playing the again from the beginning. Not on a harder difficulty or anything, but just to experience the game again. This wasn't something like Heavy Rain, where I've had the urge to replay but never followed through because I'm not sure I can stand the emotional roller-coaster again. Plus, I know "whodunnit."

I'm slowly burning through the entire series of X-Files -- I should write something about Netflix -- and there are a few episodes, particularly "Darkness Falls" -- Wikipedia describes the episode: Mulder and Scully travel to a remote area of Washington State National Forest after an entire group of thirty loggers goes missing. They soon discover that an unseen force that was lying dormant has been awakened -- which really made me want to stop watching and start playing again.

Alan Wake releases on PC today (in North America) and I finally have a bulletproof reason to dive into the lake again!